Round 3: Mosquitos in New Jersey and lending a hand in New Orleans

Badger 7 in New Jersey


So, after getting back to the Point after Summer Break, Badger 7 began in earnest preparing for our next project in New Jersey combating...mosquitos? For our next round, we were going to spread the word to New Jerseyans about the dangers of the Asian Tiger Mosquito. Being well versed in doing off-the-wall projects, we were excited somewhat for this project; we would be walking door-to-door in two Central Jersey communities-Aberdeen Township and Trenton, the capital of New Jersey.

NEW JERSEY

Personally, I was interested in going to New Jersey since, well, I hadn't really been there before, and two, I was excited about our project sponsor Rutgers University in New Brunswick. We ended up living in some pretty sweet accommodations for this part of our project, living in a Rutgers residence hall, and eventually acquiring library, wifi, and gym access as well. I found that I really enjoyed going back to a college setting, and I reignited my desire to enter academia one day.

The project itself was quite interesting. Rutgers was in charge of a federal grant to establish a control program for the Asian Tiger Mosquito (ATM), an invasive species of mosquito that has the capability to carry West Nile Virus and is a real problem in New Jersey. Rutgers had determined a few communities to serve as test sites, where they would recieve various services to control the ATM, ranging from homeowner education, mosquito control services, a combination of both, or none at all. We were sent out to serve as mosquito educators, going door-to-door, canvassing a specified area. Overall, we had a mixed bag. Some residents were responsive, others, not so much. Both areas were interesting to explore, however, I greatly enjoyed discovering the city of Trenton.

Our project in New Jersey, due to foreseen and unforeseen circumstances, ended early. For the majority of the time in New Brunswick, we were told that we would spend the remainder of our round working on a project in West Virginia. However, much to our great surprise, our destination was changed to....

NEW ORLEANS


Badger 7 + Composite Team = Rebuilding Together MEGATEAM

We headed down to New Orleans to work for 2 weeks with Rebuilding Together New Orleans, who were commemorating the 5th year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with an appropriately giant event called Fifty for Five. Rebuilding Together was going to be working on 50 different houses in the Gentill area of New Orleans over 4 days, and they needed a lot of help. They had originally requested a large number of NCCC teams to help them out, however as disasters occurred, they didn't receive any. It was at this juncture, where we, Badger 7 came in, bolstered a composite team already in New Orleans, joined forces to help out RTNO. We ran the gamut of work tasks: from putting fence/wheelchair ramp posts in the ground to working in the RT warehouse, we helped RT prepare for the big event. Starting with the event, we averaged 12 hour days, working at sites and running supplies for sites, while also supervising lumber deliveries and planting 700 trees. I was fortunate enough to work at the same build site for most of the event, where I got to know the homeowners, Adolph and Mary Christmas. They showed us tremendous hospitality, even making us and our volunteers Red Beans on Friday at lunch. Although our progress was interrupted several times by rain and media attention (to any HGTV fans out there, I met Carter Oosterhouse on site. Seemed like a cool enough guy, and plus I got to tell him about Americorps NCCC), we accomplished at lot on their house. Now that Fifty for Five is over, we now have a few days off and then head back to Perry Point for transition and our next project, which we learned will be a Maine attraction.

Me, RTNO Geoff, and the volunteers at the DeBore build site with the homeowners Adolph and Mary Christmas.

Summer Break and Boston

Here's another installment of the continuing saga of "N-Trip". Enjoy!



After coming back from Virginia, it was good to see everyone back at the point, especially the awesome Badger Unit. However, this being our second transition, it was a special one: we were getting our SUMMER BREAK!!! (caps and exclamation points added for excitement)



After deciding early on that I wouldn't go back home (mostly due to prohibitive costs for a plane ticket to Los Angeles), I decided to live it up, and spend a couple of days hanging around the East Coast. I had never been to Boston (except my parents tell me now that I was there as a child; I decided that if I don't remember it, it doesn't count), so I seized upon this opportunity to embrace my inner history geek inside me and go to Bean town for 4 days. Plus for a bit more experience, I decided to take the train up north, which I now believe was an awesome decision. So, I hitched a ride with one of my teammates to New York City, to see a game of the Evil Empire...err, I mean the New York Yankees. The game was fun and was even more satisfying when the Blue Jays beat the Yankees in extra innings.

After the game, we parted ways and I put my red bag on my back (containing all my stuff I own) and trekked off to the New York subways. My friend from college, Dan, lives on Long Island, and he allowed me to crash at his house for a couple days until I left for Boston. Arriving in Long Beach, I was hit with the realization that Long Island is much different than New York City, plus I was amazed how big the island itself is. Over the 4th of July weekend, I had a lot of fun hanging with Dan, on and off the beach.

After reverting back to a beach bum state, I left New York and took the Amtrak to Boston, where my real vacation was had. I stayed at a hostel for my first time, which was a really cool experience (plus NCCC has accoustomed me to living in bedrooms with bunkbeds with people I don't know), the people there were nice as well. The majority of my time there was spent walking the freedom trail, which was heaven for an American History buff, like myself. Boston is a nice walkable city, plus the subway is convienent if you get tired walking. I was glad to explore a bit of the city while there, doing a lot of the typical touristy stuff as well. Boston was definitely a place where I want to come back to.

Coming back early for our break, Perry Point was still largely deserted, except for the small contingent of NCCC whom, for one reason or another, stayed at the Point. Still having a couple days to myself, I finally got to explore the mystical city across the Susquehanna from Perry Point, known to most people as Havre de Grace. Its a quaint little town, with a lot more things to do than Perryville.

Soon, everyone returned and we back in motion for mid-year training and second transition. Badger 7, better known as the Super Badgers, readied ourselves for our next adventure in service, the off-misunderstood New Jersey. Rutgers University was too be our locale this round, which as one will see, provided a wealth of opportunities for us.

Until next time....

Oh..The Places You'll Go!

Due to some problems with accessing internet over the past round, this is my first blog post in forever, it seems. That being said, this may turn out to be a long one, since I have a lot of ground to cover.

The Super Badgers in Baltimore, looking very accomplished after recycling 4 tons of aluminum

Second Round was the SuperBadgers first split round, meaning that we were going to be at 2 different projects in the span of a round. The two different projects provided a good contrast to one another in locale, though, they were closely related in their aims and missions.

For our first half, we were sent to Charm City, Baltimore, Maryland to work at a charter school called City Neighbors. City Neighbors was one of the first charter schools to open in Baltimore City (our sponsor was one of the founding members), and it has become such a success that they decided to expand from the original location in the Sedonia neighborhood of Baltimore to the Hamilton area, which are about a couple miles apart in Northeast Baltimore. City Neighbors obtained the ownership of Hamilton Middle School, a school that had closed a couple years ago, and are now in the process of renovating the older school building into a more dynamic, effective learning environment. The school began last year with grades K-3, and this upcoming school year, they are adding the middle school and a high school to the mix in the same building.

The unimproved side of the old Hamilton Middle School

The renovated part of the school-a big difference

Arriving at City Neighbors Hamilton, we met our sponsor, Aisha, who is our favorite sponsor so far in NCCC. Aisha served as the guiding architect for the City Neighbors vision for Hamilton, and she was also put in charge of getting the school ready for the influx of new students in the fall. Our job, essentially, was to help the school save money on labor costs by helping prepare the school for the next stage of renovation, a big part of which was demolishing the Blue Building.

The Dreaded Blue Building

This project by far was the most physically demanding project since our year began. With our task in the Blue Building to remove as much aluminum as possible, we had to take down many of the interior walls to remove the aluminum frames. Although the walls were meant to be constructed fairly quickly (I was told at one point, a crew could out up the walls in 3 days), deconstructing them took a bit of problem solving on our part, eventually perfecting a method that worked well, and involved a lot of smashing. As we have now decided as a team, the sledgehammer was the most important tool for working in the Blue Building. Not did it get the job done in a timely manner, but it improved our upper body strength, and fulfilled the desire that everyone has at one point just beat the living crap out of something. After taking down the wall, we had to find a place to put it, which meant carrying each steel-plated piece of Sheetrock out of the building into the dumpster outside the blue building. As each piece weighed about 50-60 pounds, it was a least a 2 person job, although by the end of the project, it had turned into a 4-6 person job due to our wall-carrying fatigue.

The Blue Building near the end of our project: an unwilling victim to the power of the sledgehammer

Along with the blue building, we had an assortment of other jobs, including clearing out rooms for the professional demo crews, but one of note was deconstructing lockers in the school's boys locker room. Occurring mostly during our last week of the project, we used all of our brain and man power to disassemble these lockers, eventually using a sawsall, a weird power chisel, and of course, sledgehammers and crowbars to get it done.

My foot got caught under a row of lockers we were moving. Good thing I have steel-toed boots.

Beyond the work site, I really enjoyed getting to know Baltimore, a brand new city for me. Getting out on our free time and exploring the different neighborhoods like Fells Point and Mount Vernon was a lot of fun. The Inner Harbor provided some good time out on the water, and some team fun.

Camp Fraser, Great Falls, VA. The second half of our project.

Transitioning to Great Falls, Virginia, where the second half of our round was fairly easy. Our project, Camp Fraser, was located in a 300 acre forest preserve, which excited many of us. I was pumped to be out in nature and living simply.

Camp Fraser is operated by Calvary Baptist Church, located in downtown Washington, D.C. Mr, and Mrs. George Fraser, who were parishioners at Calvary, donated a portion of their property on the Potomac River to the church in the 1960s to help inner-city youth experience the outdoors. Since that time, the camp has been striving to fulfill that mission, until this year, when the hard choice was made to close the camp for the season and focus on getting the camp up to par. We were all thrown for a loop coming into Great Falls, where multi-million dollar mansions, each acres of land, are the norm. The contrast between the work we were doing for inner-city youth at Camp Fraser and the affluence of its immediate environs was striking.

The Camp Fraser Lodge, where we lived and worked.

Our main task at Camp Fraser was to disassemble odd-looking three-tiered bunk beds in the lodge, and construct new, typical two-tiered bunk beds. This task seemed simple enough, granted that we would have the plans and expertise provided by our site supervisor to get us started. Unfortunately, our original site supervisor, aged 89, had a slight stroke a few days before we arrived, which meant we had to shift gears on the work we could do.

In the place of our original site supervisor, we got to know (and love) Ivan, the camp's caretaker, who led us on our new work-painting the lodge bedrooms and storage rooms. We had as much fun as one could have painting white rooms a newer, brighter shade of white, and now have declared ourselves quite proficient in the fine art of painting.

The Badger 7 Paint Crew: now available for hire for all your painting needs

By the middle of the second week, painting had grown a bit repetitive, and, luckily for us, a new site supervisor arrived to help us get started building bunk beds. Laid out in different stages, Brenton, our TL, developed a system for making wood cuts and assembling the different parts that would make a bunk bed whole. We caught on pretty quickly, and by the end of the round, had made enough new bunk beds to fill both of the large downstairs bedrooms- 16 beds in all.

While at Camp Fraser, we finally had time to bond and become a more cohesive team. Stranded without both TV and Internet (combined with a good half-hour walk to anything that resembled civilization), we had to rely on each other for support and camaraderie. In our spare time, we took a lot of team outings, and got to explore some of our nation's capital.

Our second round, as a whole, was lots of fun and had many contrasts. As I write this on our summer break, Badger 7 is scattered to the far corners of the country, but in a week when we reunite for our third round (spoiler alert: its in New Brunswick, New Jersey working with Rutgers University), we'll be ready to take on anything that's in our path.

Until next time, keep your noses on the grindstone and your eyes on the stars.

-Peter

Badger 7, at the end of our project at Camp Fraser. Also, two people got into a fight with an electric shaver and lost (myself included).

What Does it Mean to Miss New Orleans (Take 2)

It is now getting to 2 weeks left in project here in St. Bernard, and I cannot believe how fast the time has flown by. It only seems like yesterday we were a bunch of greenhorn Ameri-Babies (Jen's term, not mine, lol) who didn't know Los Islenos from Judge Perez Dr. We're now spike-seasoned veterans now, almost ready for our marathon drive back to the Point and our sophomore spike.

The time is coming up soon when I will have to say goodbye to my favorite city in the world for the second time in less than a year. It does make me pause for a minute and think of all the good times I have had here, both in college and these past weeks.

I have grown to love NOLA since Katrina assualted it nearly 5 years ago, and it has nestled a special place in my heart ever since. It is a palce which I could talk of for hours on end and never really get tired of it. Most of my team had never been to the Big Easy and my favorite thing this round has been seeing their (and other Corps Members) reactions to New Orleans and seeing some of them falling in love with the city, slowly, but indeed surely.

Although I myself came into this project knowing quite a bit about the city, I still have been learning tremendously about St. Bernard Parish, which though a 5 minute drive from NOLA proper, is a world apart in history and culture. It has been my distinct pleasure in the past few weeks to get to know Mr. Bill Hyland, the St. Bernard Parish Historian. He seems to know everything you would want (and possibly not want) to know about St. Bernard, and is quite the storyteller.

Stories. That is probably the most important part of this project so far. People telling stories about everything. How the past Parish President goosed President Bush when he came to visit St. Bernard. How one cemetery lost 21 tombs from the flooding and they ended up in peoples backyards. How one man's home lifted up off of his foundation, spun around 180 degrees, and set back down. How a man and his neighbor were leaving their flooded neighborhood at night and passed an aligator coming into their neighborhood. How many concrete slabs all along our street at Camp Hope are silent memorials and testimonies to the devastation a hurricane causes. Stories. All of them.

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
I miss it both night and day
I know that its wrong...this feeling is getting stronger
The longer, I stay away

Livin' in Da Parish

So were now 4 weeks into our project here in St. Bernard Parish (or as the locals call it- 'da Parish"), right outside New Orleans proper, reaching our halfway mark through the Super Badgers' first spike, and it definitely has been a learning experience for all of us.

First, though, as I like to always do, a little background about our project and envrions. Our Project for this first round has been the Serve Green Initiative, operating out of Camp Hope 3, where we both live and work.

Serve Green was techincally started a year ago, however, what really got it off the ground was an AmeriCorps NCCC composite team from the Pacific Region Campus. They started here in January and all they had to start was a whiteboard of ideas and a messy office. Then 2 months later, they got the Super Badgers to take it over. With less than the slightest idea of what we'd be doing here at Serve Green, we were more than appreciative to have a 2 week transition with the Sacramento composite team.

A lot of that transition came with a lot of learning, like how to motivate a group of volunteers to plant baby cypress trees into a swamp with a lot of muck (some days were easier than others), or how to organize our efforts in the office to make sure we had projects for a group of 50+ people to do on a particular day.

Some days have been awesome, some dreadful, some filled with anticipation, some with excitement, but overall it has been a great experience so far. A plus so far has been the interaction we've gotten with other AmeriCorps teams, including Perry Point's own Badger 5, the Camp Hope kitchen crew (a well-deserved shout out to them), and the other Sacramento teams that were here during our transition- the Serve Green composite (you guys are all awesome), Gold 3, and Silver 5. At the beginning, we had a veritiable AmeriVillage at Camp Hope (RIP AmeriVillage).

So now we're set up living in Camp Hope's parking lot, in a Operation Orphan Grain Train shipping container we've dubbed The Bunker, eating 3 square meals a day (2 provided by Badger 5), and doing our best to keep up with our volunteers, and doing different projects at different places each day of the week. We've each taken leads on serveral projects old, have been getting out into Da Parish, trying to find new projects to work on. A lot of our work revolves around talking to to people and networking, as it seems that if you meet several important people around these parts, they seem to know most other people.

Probably trhe most enjoyable part of the project are the people you meet, both volunteers and the people of St. Bernard, who have always been welcoming and gracious to us. You never know when you'll be touched, either by their hospitality, their honesty, or by their resilence in coming back to the place they call home. Every home in St. Bernard was touched by the hurricane, and everyone has a story to tell, some times funny, some times heart-rending, but always hopeful.

What Does It Mean To Miss New Orleans?

The official Badger picture of the SuperBadgers aka Badger 7. The Members are: (from left) Aaron, me, (standing) Buck, Katie, Stephanie, Connor, (lower row) Abby, Autumn, Maaj, Jade, and Brenton, our fearless leader.

Much has transpired since my last blog post, so i guess right now is as good time as any to get you all up to speed. There has been blood, sweat, and tears, but most of all, laughter (i.e. the having a good time kind).

So, when I last wrote, we were on our baby Spike in Hockessin, Delaware. Brenton, our Team Leader, decided on that first night to reveal where we would be going for our first full spike. We all recieved a text message containing letters, that, when unscrambled, would reveal where our project location was. After we had gathered each others' message from our phones, we tried to unscramble them, but to no avail. In addition, the rules to the game were vague- we could have all the the letters, not enough, or some letters more than once. Undoubtedly, we were pretty confused and dumbfounded. After spending the majority of the night working on the unsolvable puzzle, Brenton, slowly gave us hints until we discovered that the message read: Camp Hope New Orleans.

With that tribulation over, we were giddy with excitement. Personally, this was just what I wanted. New Orleans has been dear to my heart ever since some hurricane kicked the crap out of it nearly 5 years ago. So, for most of us, while we worked the rest of the days on baby Spike, we had less than a week to look forward to New Orleans. We did score some Girl Scout Cookies the last day, for which we were all excited, and nearly devoured all of them in one sitting.

Returning from baby Spike, we threw ourselves into the last week of CTI (aka training), which essentially was our prep week for new orleans. We had to complete a Director's Brief, which ultimately was a 20 minute presentation describing what we will be doing on our Spike. Also, at the end of the week, we would be officially inducted as AmeriCorps members, with a lot of pizaaz.

However, a word that we had been hearing at lot during CTI came into play- flexibility. On Monday, our TL Brenton called our Sponsor to find out a little more onj what we would be doing for Camp Hope. Well, let's just say what we thought were going to be doing was not were were going to do. This revelation was not only news to Brenton, but to all of the Project Office staff at the Point.

What we were going to be doing was even better than before. Rather than working in a warehouse as originally thought, we were going to be working at an (almost) brand-new project, one that was in fact started by an NCCC from the Pacific Region only a few months ago. It is called the Serve Green Initiative, and we were to be Serve Green Initiative after we arrived in St. Bernard. We would be developing our own projects, and leading 80-100 volunteers on those projects each week. This was (and is) a prospect that excited all of us.

Training and Baby Spike

Back Again.

At least now for a couple days, I will have some reliable internet access, but more on than situation later.

Last week was a pretty fun filled week. In all technicalities, last week was our first full week of training. Some of the training was interesting and useful (CPR/First Aid and Tool Training) and others were not so interesting. My team, Badger 7, has started to getting to know each other better. Last week was also a full week of PT, which has been an up-and-down experience, but I've made it a personal challenge of mine to overcome.

We also found out that we would be going on a Mini-Spike (Brenton, my Team Leader, made us all call it Baby Spike), which would consist of a 4 day long project, simulating the longer spikes (projects) that would consume most of time here in NCCC. After furiously prodding Brenton, we eventually learned that we would be going to Hockessin, DE, refurbishing a Girl Scout camp the next week. Much to our amazement, the facility where we were to stay was a brand new building with internet access, a full kitchen, and TV (!!). We were all pumped to get started doing some service and living in our new accommodations for Baby Spike.

On Saturday, I got to participate in my first ISP (Independent Service Projects) working at a high and middle school robotics competition in Westminster, MD. Each Corps Member has to complete 80 hours of their own planned projects, and many of us are getting a jump start on our ISP hours during our training. The robotics competition was very entertaining, as each team had a different concept for a robot that would complete the tasks in different ways. The one I most most liked was a big claw, and was soon dubbed the same by the arena announcer. Overall, it was a great way to spend a Saturday, though a long one, working 14 hours.

On Monday, we were thrilled to have a second Congressional visit, for which we again furiously swept and mopped. We also spent a day at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE, training, which was a good break from the norm.

Also this weekend we got our chance to select our specialty roles within our team. There are about five different roles, each dealing with different aspects. Some, such as Media Rep and CAP, deal with external affairs and recuiting, while others are more internal like Team Trainer and the Service Learning Initiator (SLI). The one that held the most appeal to me was the SLI, as its their job to investigate the why questions behind the service, and help the team reflect on their service. Luckily, I was chosen as one of the SLIs (sly) and I'm looking forward to our first spike and the opportunities I can help facilitate for my team.

So today we had our first day at our baby Spike, and we were all psyched to get working on the project at hand. Hopefully soon we find out were we will be going for our first real spike in the next couple of days, which we are all anxious to learn. Thanks again for reading.

Getting things done!